uBuilder Plans

What should you grow? Where could you possibly grow a garden in the city? How can you be successful?

When you are first starting out with a garden it is important to start out slow. By starting slow you are able to learn as you go. Taking on projects slowly also lets you gain a practical feel for how much time and work your garden will be. Starting slow will help you achieve a more certain success. Grow the things that you like best to eat and the things that are the most costly to buy. If you can buy a can of green beans for 25 cents, but your favorite salad mix is costing you several dollars per bag, for goodness sake grow the salad! Even if everyone tells you over and over how wonderful fresh asparagus is, if no one in your household will eat asparagus (like the folks at my house) don't waste your time.

If you are an urban gardener you may find space a problem, fortunately there are several solutions. By using container gardening or eatable landscaping methods, and by growing bush or climbing crops and crops specially selected for small spaces like dwarf fruit trees, you can produce a significant amount of food in a very small space.

Using large pots you can grow a number of foods even on a balcony or inside with a grow lamp. I have found that the large soda companies like Pepsi or Cocoa-Cola ship their drink syrups in large 35 and 50 gallon plastic drums. Locally I have found a recycling source for these barrels. I am certain with a little searching you could find a similar source. I was able to purchase the barrels for $10 and $15 respectively. These barrels were cut in half (easily done with a reciprocating saw), then several holes were drilled approximately two inches from the bottom on the sides to allow for excess water to drain. I left the bottom intact to allow for some water storage in the pot, since where we live we often have summer drought issues. Next a layer course gravel was added to the pots to aid in drainage. I filled the remainder of the pot with good compost, but a good rich potting soil will also work.

Now that you have your growing space, what shall you grow?

Well, a good starter project for many people is a tomato plant. Home grown tomatoes are a true delicacy, like nothing you could ever buy at a store! Tomatoes are very productive plants capable of producing 8 pounds of fruit or even more on each plant. This makes them even more attractive to people with limited space. Tomatoes are easy to grow as long as you live some where the temperature stays above 60 for at least 65 days per year. Their flowers will drop when nights fall below 55 and no flowers means no fruit. They are very adaptable, being productive whether grown in a country garden setting or in a large pot on a balcony in the city. Tomatoes come in two basic kinds determinate and indeterminate.

Determinate tomatoes grow to a fixed height and tend to be bushier. Tomatoes of this kind set most of their fruit at once. This makes them good for home canners and also growers with limited space. Some determinate varieties, like "Patio", are specifically developed for container growing. (for more info just click) How to Plant a Tomato.

Other crops that will do will in your container gasoline garden include: peppers, egg plant, bush varieties of squash or cucumbers, root crops including beets, carrots, onions or radishes. Leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, and mesclun mixes are wonderful additions to your container. These crops grow quickly, are highly productive, and often expensive to buy at the store. Additionally these crops have had a high rate of contamination and have been placed on the FDA danger lists and even recalled in the past. Why risk Salmonella or E Coli contamination when you can easily grow these nutritious greens yourself at home?

Herbs are also a great container crop. People with limited space can grow several years worth of an herb in a single pot! By growing a chosen herb or two each year and then drying them and storing them in a cool dark place or even a freezer, a person with very limited space can grow a whole gourmet selection of herbs over a few years time. Certain herbs may become favorites and be grown every year while a few of the less used ones may be grown only ever few years to keep your supply fresh and full. Pricing an ounce of dried herbs or a few sprigs of fresh herbs at your local grocery will show you how economical this endeavor truly is.

Green onion, chives and garlic are also good container candidates. Growing them can be a duel usage crop. Clip only the green tops for use in cooking of salads and they will regrow and be useful for a long time. I have had a pot of chives that has been clipped for use both fresh and dried, that has been producing on my porch for about five years!

With the addition of a trellis in your container several other crops may also be grown including pole beans and sugar peas. While you may not be able to grow enough of a crop like this to can, it can certainally produce enough to eat in salads or for a few meals.

The next step for the urban gardener is the eatable landscape. Using this idea you add food crops to an existing border planting, flower garden or even a foundation planting. In this setting you want to use plants that are highly decorative as well as tasty.

Plants with attractive flowers or foliage are rather common in food crops these days. When I grew a pumpkin vine as part of the foundation planting in the apartment complex where I lived, I was constantly asked about the huge beautiful orange flowers on my "exotic vine". Okra plants have nice upright foliage and beautiful orchid like flowers that rival many garden flowers. In addition many of the newer varieties even have colorful okra pods. A variety that I regularly grow is called burgundy okra. It is fast and easy to grow, the pods are great to eat, beautifully colored, and some people even eat the plants leaves as a green!

Beans come in a nice variety. I have grown purple podded pole beans, and scarlet runner beans that have a beautiful red or (other bright color) blooms. Calico lima or King of the Garden lima beans make a great vine for shade or screening while producing a lovely crop. There are several kinds of pepper that are quite ornamental, and egg plant makes a great conversation piece. Rhubarb, asparagus, or brussels sprouts all make great plants to use in a border as well as in the kitchen. The large showy leaves of the Rhubarb work anyplace you would use a hosta or coleus. The asparagus has light fluffy fern like foliage and the solid stately brussels sprout can work almost as a mini shrub or anchor plant and look great when grown with flowering annuals like the eatable nasturtium, violet or eatable varieties of daylily.

If you have a small sunny yard space available you should also try to grow some fruit. Fresh and canned fruit is always at a premium in the grocery store and most fruit is extremely easy to preserve by water bath canning, turning it into jams or jellies or simply freezing. Elderberries, strawberries, black berries, raspberries, black raspberries and even grapes can be grown in a small space and require little care. Price fresh or frozen raspberries in your local market and you will understand how they have earned the nickname "queens sovereigns". Blackberries in particular have beautiful flowers that resemble a simple wild rose blossom. Strawberries are also quite ornamental. Their lovely leaves, white blossoms, and dainty berries make a nice addition to any sunny garden spot.

Dwarf fruit trees are also a wonderful addition to your landscape if you have the space and some time to wait for them to mature. Their lovely blossoms and attractive form make them a perfect urban lawn tree. Fruit trees do require a bit of maintenance however, with pruning, cleaning up any fallen fruit and possibly some spraying. My personal dwarf tree is no more than 12 feet tall and has provided my family with over 60 pounds of fruit in a single year! Well worth the three years of wait it took to begin producing and the extra care. The new grafted fruit trees make it possible to grow several varieties or even KINDS of fruit on the SAME tree. I personally have a "fruit cocktail" tree that produces plums, peaches, apricots, and nectarines on the same tree. This amazing thing is possible because all of those fruits are closely related in the same family! By grafting a branch from several different trees on the same root stock it becomes possible to grow all of these different things on one tree in a small space. There are grafted trees now to grow many fruits including: apples, pears and cherries.

There are also many other great books and other resources out there with "how to grow information" in them. There are even gardening booklets available from the government for little or no cost. One book that I would recommend for small space growers is "Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space With Less Work" by Mel Bartholomew (ISBN:1579548563). It is a good resource to use for plant space and growth habit requirements. Once again just start slow and over time you will be amazed at all of the nutritious foods that you can grow yourself! You will not only save your family time, money and gasoline; you will enjoy yourself in the process!